Republican Party, China, Louis C.K.: Your Thursday Evening Briefing

1. Republicans in Congress are pushing ahead with their efforts to get a sweeping tax bill onto President Trump’s desk by Christmas.

The Senate unveiled a bill that delays a big corporate tax cut until 2019 and keeps several valuable deductions — but completely eliminates the one for state and local taxes.

The House and Senate proposals diverge on important provisions that will be challenging for lawmakers to rectify in the coming weeks, in part because of competing political priorities facing members in each chamber. Above, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, after a meeting on the tax plan.

We interviewed top American executives at the annual DealBook conference. Speaking publicly for the first time since he became the head of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, above, said he was working hard to change the company in light of the scandals that led to his predecessor’s ouster.

And the authorities are facing questions about the death toll. The official number is 55, but statistics show that 472 more people died this September compared with the same month last year. With temperatures exceeding 90, the lack of power hit the elderly particularly hard.

7. This week’s Times Magazine is the Tech & Design issue, and it’s entirely devoted to one subject: our driverless future.

We imagined what the world would look like when “autonomous cars” carry us wherever we need to go. How would street signs change? What would we do with all that new free time? What about speeding tickets, or sex in cars? Roadkill? Above, the past.

How do you reinvent one of the world’s best-loved whodunits for a new era?

Kenneth Branagh, the director and star, above, decided to transform the character of Poirot, Christie’s idiosyncratic Belgian detective, into a dashing man of action. (It took nine months to design his truly impressive mustache.)

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CreditAngelo Carconi/European Pressphoto Agency

9. Pope Francis has a message for Catholics: Put down your smartphone during Mass. “At some point, the priest during the Mass says, ‘Lift up your hearts,’” the pontiff remarked during a general audience at St. Peter’s Square this week.

Its blockbuster 2018 fashion exhibition will be “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” featuring ecclesiastical garments from the Vatican, works from the Met’s collection and designer garments inspired by Catholic iconography and style. Above, works by El Greco and Cristobal Balenciaga.

“Beauty has often been a bridge between believers and unbelievers,” the lead curator said. And just imagine the Met’s Gala in April. The annual fund-raiser is famous for its wild red carpet, which draws on the theme of each year’s big show.